Sunday, 11 December 2016

Jia Jia Tang Bao Dumplings 佳家汤包 - Huangpu Qu - Shanghai, China

Can you believe Christmas is in a few weeks? How time flies. This year seems to have gone by quicker than the last and I seem to say the exact same thing every year.

Jia Jia Tang Bao is a casual and hole in the wall restaurant serving what is reputed as the best xiao long bao in Shanghai. They started operating back in the 1980’s and have become a household name. If you do a search on Google for the best xiao long bao restaurant in Shanghai, this place would most likey pop up.I do have a soft spot for dumplings and I couldn't have left Shanghai without having tried their speciality. the xia long bao. We came here twice for the record. Do expect to wait during peak hours as the restaurant is small and long queues do form.

Ordering is done at the small counter at the front as you enter and as there isn’t a large menu to choose from so it shouldn't be that hard to choose. They also have an English menu available if you need it. On our first visit to this restaurant where we visited in the late afternoon, the pork dumplings were sold out.

Dumplings are made to order
and prepared fresh on the premises by a group of staff behind the glass wall. They churn it out at amazing speeds.

We found the interior to be relatively
clean and hygiene levels looked decent.

A retired couple from the United States shared the same table with us. The man told us that he tried the dumplings from here over 10 years ago but his wife hadn’t so he brought her here to try it and she loved it. That says a lot given that the standards haven’t dropped in those many years since he last visited.

There aren’t many
tables and if you are a small group, expect to share a table.

On our first visit we had two trays of the ‘Pork and Crab Dumplings’ and they were just delicious and bursting with flavour. It had a nice subtle crab flavour.

The dumplings are delivered piping hot to the table and with one bite, the soup within oozes out and is super sweet. Let some steam out before devouring or end up burning your tongue!

The skins are paper thin and near translucent.

We came the second time to try their
variation of the pork dumplings. At 16 RMB for a basket of a dozen dumplings,
it’s a steal.

These were also on point but we preferred the pork and crab dumplings.
There was something about the combination of the juices from the pork and crab
that gave it that extra hit.

Soup dumplings are usually eaten with a
dipping sauce made up of vinegar and shredded ginger. I personally don’t like
vinegar but if you do, definitely order this. I preferred the spicy sauce.

This is a restaurant that I would
definitely recommend for its affordable menu choices, location, ease of ordering and tasty dumplings. It can't be missed.